the kremlin’s new approach to national identitydenying moral principles and all traditional identities: national, cul-
tural, religious and even sexual. They are implementing policies that
put same- sex partnerships on a par with large families; belief in Satan
on a par with the belief in God. (Putin 2013a)Up against this decadence, decay and moral upheaval, Putin pro-
claimed Russia as a beacon of traditional virtues and family
values, and called for the people to rally in defence of this values-
based national identity. The ‘ethnic turn’ that commenced with
Putin’s third term was, in other words, part and parcel of a
broader conservative, traditionalist reorientation.
In the March 2014 address devoted to the inclusion of Crimea
and Sevastopol as subjects of the Russian Federation, Putin went
even further in linking the fate of the ethnic Russians and Russian
statehood. As noted elsewhere in this volume, Putin put forward
historical arguments to justify the revision of the state borders:
Crimea had previously been part of the Russian Empire and then
of the RSFSR; and the 1954 decision to transfer the peninsula to
Ukraine, a grand gesture by First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev
on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the treaty uniting
contemporary Eastern Ukraine with Muscovy, was written off
as a historical mistake and an unconstitutional act. However, in
making his case, Putin consistently used the term russkii rather
than rossiiskii. In his emotional appeal, he insisted that ‘in the
hearts, in the minds of people, Crimea always was and remains
an integral part of Russia... Crimea is primordial Russian land
(iskonno russkaia zemlia) and Sevastopol a Russian city (russkii
gorod)’ (Putin 2014a). In other words, bringing the peninsula
back in under Moscow’s control was not only legitimised by
Crimea historically having been part of the Russian Empire and
the RSFSR – the peninsula was also considered ethnic Russian
lands. Accession to the Federation was presented both as an act
of rectifying historical injustice and of ethnic self- determination.
With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Russian people had
‘turned into one of the biggest divided nations in the world, if not
the biggest’ (Putin 2014a). Now, the ethnic Russians – along the
local Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars – and the ‘Russian’ lands
were being welcomed back home to the motherland.